The Fire Times Zuko Came Home
by Lariren-Shadow
Summary: He can tell someone has recently been in to clean because the room smells palm oil and every surface looks new. His bed is freshly made and the windows are open so the room can air out.


**A/N**: For be the peaf prompt "Homecoming"

**Disclaimer**: I don't own.

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><p>Ursa loves to tell the story of Zuko's first trip to Ember Island when he was three. For the entire week before he was so excited that, when he ran, he left a trail of sparks behind him. It got so bad there had to be an Imperial Firebender on, as they called it, 'Zuko watch' to make sure he didn't accidentally set fire to anything.<p>

On the boat ride over Zuko squirms in Ursa's lap and would not stop talking about how he was going to play with his cousin and sister and all the other things he would do. Ursa reminds him Azula is still a little too little to keep up with him and that maybe Lu Ten would have other activities he wants to do but Zuko doesn't care.

He ran off the boat as soon as he could and tries to run up to the house. He tires as soon as he starts to climb the hill and Ozai has to carry him the rest of the way as Azula only wants Ursa to carry her. As soon as they got inside Zuko screams "No!"

"No what?" Ozai asks.

"Not home!" Zuko screams. "I want to go home!"

"Ursa you said he was excited to come here," Ozai complains as Zuko kept repeating "want to go home."

"You heard him at dinner every night," Ursa responds as she rubs Azula's back as she starts to fuss in time with her brother.

"Zuko," Ozai says sternly, "we are on vacation and you will enjoy this."

"NO!" Zuko screams in his father's ear.

The entire week Zuko complains and cries about wanting to go home. At the beach he destroys his own sand pagoda, he throws his food, he wouldn't go to sleep.

Ursa holds him on the boat ride back. She tells him where they were going which seems to placate him.

As soon as they walk through the palace doors Zuko yells "I want to go back to the beach!"

Ozai looks down at Azula in his arms. "You will never do this," he tells her.

Ursa glares as Ozai as she tries to comfort Zuko by telling him they are home.

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><p>Zuko is tired. The tea shop had been packed all day. He's barely had time to take a break and the tips had been marginal at best (even with all those people). His feet drag as he opens the door to the tiny apartment Uncle insists they still need to decorate.<p>

"How about some tea to relax?" Iroh suggests as he walks to the kitchen.

"No. More. Tea."

"Then maybe some food? You hardly ate all day."

Zuko refrains from rolling his eyes. He should have been used to Iroh's worrying but at the moment everything that was not his bed annoys him. "I don't want tea and I don't want food. I just want to go to my bed in our stupid apartment and be left alone." With that he slams the door of their shared bedroom.

Zuko misses Iroh's small smile. The last thought before he collapses into bed was that he was glad to be home.

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><p>He can tell someone has recently been in to clean because the room smells palm oil and every surface looks new. His bed is freshly made and the windows are open so the room can air out.<p>

Nothing has changed. His old clothes are still in his dresser, too small to be of any use now. For the past few weeks he's been wearing his sister's clothes and trying very hard to not think about how they're the same size or how much smaller he is since he left his ship. Soon he's going to get his own clothes and he can get rid of the remnants of his old life.

The scroll he left on his bedside table is still there. He expected someone to retrieve it in his absence. It's clear his room has been locked and left unattended for the past three years.

He crouches beside the bed, reaching his hand underneath. He counts the floor boards. Then slams his hand down on the end of the tenth. It pops open, just like it always did. His treasures are just where he left them. He pulls them out, hand and objects covered in a layer of dust.

A portrait of his mother, a bottle of her perfume, the toy dragon Lu Ten gave him for his sixth birthday. All things he had to hide after his father became Fire Lord. Things he couldn't risk taking with him.

He opens the bottle of perfume, he breathes in deeply. The scent comforts him.

Even though he feels like an outsider, that this is nothing like he imaged it would be, for the first time since he set foot back on Fire Nation soil he felt like he was home.

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><p>"Is there anything you'd like to change, Fire Lord?" His (his!) majordomo asks.<p>

"Uh," is all Zuko's regal response. This was Grandfather's room, then Father's room, and now, surprisingly, his room. That leaves a strange taste in his mouth. Or maybe he needs another healing session with Katara. "I think I'll sleep in my room tonight."

"Of course." A quick bow and then Zuko is alone in the room. Not his room, a room. His room is down the hall and probably untouched since he left. He hopes being home now won't be as strange as last time.

"Healing session?" Katara asks as she walks into the room.

Zuko nods. "Not here," he says.

He leads her to his room, where he's most comfortable. He sits on the bed and waits for her to glove her hands in water. She begins healing without a word and he relaxes.

"Are you happy to be home?" Katara asks as she finishes healing.

It should be a simple question but it's not. He's not even sure what's going to happen next, besides trying to rule a country that he's been exiled from for the majority of the past three years. "I'm not sure," he tells her honestly.

"Not what you expected?"

He shakes his head. "Maybe it just takes time."

She smiles. "The important thing is you have a place to call home now."

That thought comforts him. In a few months he finally feels like he belongs in the palace again.

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><p>"And then Zuko screamed so loudly in Ozai's ear that he complained of a ringing sound for days," Ursa jokes.<p>

"He complained the entire time and Lu Ten tried to give him candy to stop crying. Zuko threw it back at him," Iroh adds.

Zuko blushes. Even though he's heard this story so many times there's something completely embarrassing about having your mother tell a story about you as a child in front of your friends.

"You really hated Ember Island that much?" Aang asks.

"Apparently," Zuko grumbles.

"Aw, did you want to cry when we stayed at the beach house buddy?" Sokka crones.

Zuko hits him and Katara hits him in return. "Don't hit each other." Zuko and Sokka look slightly apologetic before Toph hits each of them in return.

"It's how I show affection," she explains.

They laugh and for the first time, in a long time, he feels like he's home.

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><p><strong>Reviews are awesome.<strong>


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